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The new ‘automated’ post boxes are replacing the red pillar boxes that have stood in Britain for almost two centuries.
It’s been labelled Royal Mail’s “biggest redesign in its 175-year history”.
The new digital boxes are powered by solar panels with a battery backup, meaning they can no longer be covered in crocheted post box toppers. The purpose of them is to allow customers to send small parcels without needing to go to a post office.
Each post box includes a barcode scanner for tracked items, proof of posting through the app, and a wider postage slot for the small parcels.
The postal company announced in early 2025 that it would be introducing of the new 3,500 new digital post boxes across the UK.
18 of those are in Swindon, and are now up and running as of March 2026.
The post boxes were first taped off in December 2025 to prepare for the change. Royal Mail would not confirm to the Swindon Advertiser the exact locations of where these new post boxes would be, but local reports have already begun to piece together a map of the affected areas.
Taped off post boxes being prepared for the digital change were reported near Ellendune Community Centre in Wroughton, on Maunsell Way, Kellsboro’ Avenue, and outside Taw Hill Medical Practice in the north of Swindon.
Concern was originally raised by residents in the lead up to Christmas 2025 when several Royal Mail post boxes across the town were found covered in black tape and “unusable”.
Residents speculated that they may have been vandalised.
“The post box I usually use at the Taw Hill GP surgery has been sealed for weeks, but I’ve noticed a few others popping up now with the same black tape all over them,” one Haydon Wick resident told the Adver.
However, Royal Mail has reassured customers that the temporary inconvenience was for a long-term improvement to the company’s services.
Each box has been individually measured, its door taken off and retrofitted at Royal Mail’s engineering centre in Gloucester.
“Our post boxes of the future offer another convenient way for customers in Swindon to access Royal Mail’s services, alongside home delivery and collection, our Customer Service Points, Post Office branches, lockers and Royal Mail Shop outlets,” a spokesperson for Royal Mail told the Adver.
